Ecosystem Interactions

It's hard to know for sure the lifestyles, diets, interactions, or anything really about the creatures that dwell in the dark depths of the deepest oceans. Clues and educated guesses make up the majority of our information on deep sea marine organisms. We do have, however - thanks to research by committed individuals and organizations - some idea of the lifestyles and relationships of these organisms.

While the deep sea is host to the largest concentration of life on Earth, it is also extraordinarily vast - meaning that finding other organisms to feed on can often be a difficult and tedious task for those hoping to survive in the darkness. Therefore, deep sea predators must either be extremely efficient, able to survive for long periods of time without food, or both. For this same reason, meetings between deep sea organisms are often not the ideal situations for sunshine and happiness - There are no rainbows in the dark down here, Mr. Dio.

There do, however, exist symbiotic relationships even in the harsh realm of The Deep - For example, some species of the deep sea "Angler Fish" have a very strange relationship where the male, which is much smaller than the female, attaches itself permanently to the body of the female; henceforth living off of the female in exchange for a constant supply of sperm available to the female.